Saturday, November 11, 2006

The questioning was mostly a time pass. Bad cop started filling out a massive dossier form, which for the next nine hours both would write in Arabic details about my family’s migration history, my educational history from pre-KG to the PhD level, details about my work history, etc. Every now and then they would interject with the real questions: why did you come to Dubai? Who is funding you? Why are you asking so many questions? Why are you doing interviews? Why are you asking so many questions about locals? Who said you can come? Why did you come to Dubai?

I am a sociologist from Brooklyn, NY here in Dubai doing interviews for a book on people born/brought up in Dubai who stick around or come back to work. I'm interested in how people deal with the idea and the reality of a home that at any time can say go back to your place you came from. Which for these people is, well, this is my home. How do you "go back" to, say, India (if that's your passport) when you've never lived there?

The point of this blog is two-fold. First, to keep friends and fam back in the US and elsewhere up-to-date on what I'm doing. Second, by putting up my Dubai notes, I invite people in Dubai, and people from Dubai living elsewhere to engage me in dialog -- challenge my ideas, correct me where I'm wrong, tell me I'm an ass, or say right on.

The third fold is this is a way for me to keep a running tally of things, people (names changed to protect the innocent), etc that will go in the book.